An aggressive reconnaissance
It was a cool summer evening, and the last light of the setting sun lined the sparse clouds with a pinkish glow. The group of soldiers descended from the hill in tight formation, casting long shadows on the uneven grass; behind them, their base camp shined with little blinking lights.
Before long, they entered the city suburbs, where the advancing darkness was kept at bay by streetlights and neon signs. On the first night of the crisis, new Hypatia already looked like a city at war: past curfew, no one wandered the streets, windows and shops were closed, and in the eerie silence echoed faraway sounds of sirens and gunshots.
Silent, clad in their white uniforms, they could be mistaken for ghosts, quickly shifting from shadow to shadow, headed straight towards the Patricius Oceanographic Data Center. As they were nearing the coastal structures, built on a series of docks and artificial creeks, Asunciòn signalled caution to her men: an alarm was blaring from one of the compounds near the waterfront, bathing the street in intermittent orange light.
Nico, their Prowler, was already scouting forward with Anna and Simon from the Zero Infiltration Teams, and sent her an air sample analysis on the private communication channel: an unknown viral agent was spreading from inside one of the laboratories, but the readings from the Biotech Threat Assessment geists estimated a negligible danger level for it. The Reverend Custodier frowned, activating the independent oxygen supply of her suit anyway. What the hell was happening inside the Center? She decided to proceed with caution, and ordered her forces to take positions in the buildings around the lab. Her fireteam, formed by Horqueta, the Cenobite Sister Adeline and herself, closed in on the building from behind an habitational block, while on their left an Uberfallkommando unit was stalking forward together with Emily, a Morlock; the Chimera, Freya, was good friends with her, and even the pupniks were comfortable around the cheerful blonde woman.
Farther from the Data Center, Mother Agatha Wabara had led her squad near Simon's position together with Clara, their other morlock. She had joined them a week prior, bringing news of Reverend Kusanagi's blessing on their operation. Asunciòn had been exceedingly relieved to learn that the Superior approved their involvement, given how often the agenda of the Observance had conflicted with the Nomad Military Command's orders in the past. Her train of thought was derailed by a movement on the roof of the laboratory: the lithe artificial body of Robin Hook leaned over the edge, greeting her with a smile. She was reached by a short range data burst: from her vantage point, the android had spotted approaching Yu Jing forces, probably coming to investigate the cause of the alarm.
"Dammit!" thought Asunciòn, quickly alerting all other units "We can't risk being stopped by State Empire agents, they'll for sure blame us for whatever is happening here."
She opened the general communication channel
"On your marks everyone, we've got hostiles inbound. We'll have to repel them quickly and complete our reconnaissance before their reinforcements arrive. Strike first, strike hard, and may the blessing of Saint Mary be with you."
"Fiiinally, some action!" sighed Horqueta in the audio feed, followed by whispered cheers from their irregulars, and the low growls of pupniks.
Freya and Emily were the first to move, rushing towards a lone figure that had left the building from a service door: the fleeing scientist was quickly surrounded by snarling bioengineered creatures, and kindly asked to comply. Horqueta, aiming down the sights of her heavy machine gun, spotted an ochre combat remote that had climbed on a rooftop in front of them. Two bursts of fire echoed in the empty streets, disabling the Chaiyi; she then advanced further forward along the wall of the module, spotting another machine in the distance: a Rui-Shi had trained its advanced optics on her, but its return fire proved to be inaccurate from such a long range, while the HMG hosed the entire area with high calibre bullets, the multiple impacts throwing the remote backwards and opening huge holes in its chassis.
Meanwhile, on the opposite flank, Sister Lavinia, the Cenobite that accompanied Mother Wabara, had vaulted over a flight of stairs, pointing her rocket launcher towards a Jujak peeking from a construction site. The heavily armoured soldier rolled to the side, avoiding the impact, while a Weibing remote started flashing its high intensity laser beams towards her. The worksite lighted up in a fiery conflagration, and Lavinia heard screams of pain erupting from behind her target, while the blinding rays missed entirely, their targeting matrix scrambled by the Observance's optical disruption devices. An heartbeat later, another target appeared on a roof on the right: an Hundun fired its weapon just as the second salvo of rockets streamed in his direction. Once again, the Yujingese trooper didn't hit his mark, while the roof he was standing on disappeared under a blanket of orange flames.
Simon, hidden on the roof near Lavinia, got up to help her fight off the assailants, shooting at the Weibing with his combi rifle; the machine however was faster, and a blinding stream of light overloaded the sensors of his mask. Seeing an opening, the remote dashed forward, opening fire with its automatic weapon. Despite the rockets raining down on it, the nimble drone managed to get a good hit on the Zero, before one of the incendiary rounds found purchase and reduced it to a hissing and flaming carcass.
"One of my pretties thinks it saw something move near the dock, be on your guard." warned them Freya's mellow voice. Anna, that had submerged to the neck in the cold, dark waters, immediately signalled she was on her way, and, after a few seconds, Nico joined her, stopping behind a nearby advertisement board. A Guilang hacker was just outside of the range of the Prowler's killer hacking device, but, before he could cover the short distance, a bulky remote rounded the corner accompanied by the low whirring sound of its wheels: a Lu Duan, with the pilot light of its flamethrower already primed, was searching for targets. Before it could reach the water, where it would have sighted the Zero, Nico jumped in front of it, opening fire with his shotgun. The machine groaned and sparked, but, before sputtering to the ground, a jet of flame enveloped the Nomad soldier, that fell backwards, screaming and rolling on the concrete. Both figures twitched for a few moments, then went still, as the acrid stench of charred flesh and plastic started to rise around them.
Anna remained paralyzed, unable to avert her eyes from the blackened, smoking form of her comrade while the Guilang swam past her still camouflaged form. He reached the far wall of the creek, where water flowed through massive pipes into the compound, and started operating his hacking device. After a few seconds, apparently satisfied with the information gathered, he closed the interface and retreated on a raised platform by the water's edge. Yujing forces had, however, sustained heavy casualties, and the other survivors were desperately trying to regroup: a last Weibing remote dashed forward, getting mowed down by Horqueta, while Lavinia managed to repel another attack from the Jujaks in the burning worksite.
Their final assault blunted, the White Banner forces had no choice but to retreat away from the compound, disappearing in the dark alleys that led towards the city centre. The Nomads moved quickly, recovering the wounded and mapping the area, while the scientist, a PanOceanian named Amber Hawkins, was readily convinced to help them secure all the data they could from the laboratory.
Before Yu Jing reinforcements or mercenaries of the IA could arrive, the Observance force had withdrawn outside of the city limits.
Asunciòn didn't know if any of the information they gathered was connected to Brutus, or if she would find details of Aleph's plans in the region, or something else entirely. The only certainty was that it would take quite some time for them to decrypt and go through everything. Moreover, they still had many of the buildings of the Oceanographic Data Center to examine, including the central hub and its datasphere. But she believed that her team had accomplished more than enough for one night: beyond securing classified intel on what was actually happening in Patricius, they had accurately surveyed the area and established several secure access points to the local network in view of a future visit.
She allowed herself a slight smile.
With the blessing of Saint Mary, things were starting off on the right foot.
Conclusion
A very fast and bloody game, my opponent lost the Lt roll, and I chose deployment, while he chose second turn. Having had the opportunity to counter deploy, my first turn was very effective, and, heading in his first turn, my opponent had a severely diminished offensive capability. After some pieces were traded on his counterattack without managing to reclaim one of his near quadrants, he decided that he had lost too much combat effectiveness to win. We talked trough the rest of the game, and the likely outcome appeared to be a 10-1 victory for Bakunin. Thanks a lot for reading this far, I hope you enjoyed the report!
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